These Sober Words are not enough.
Yesterday is gone
By Ngozi Agbapu
Yesterday is gone
Tomorrow is yet to come
Today is here, do what you have to
do,
Worry not for tomorrow
Lament not about yesterday
Know you this surely
Tomorrow is pregnant, you know not
what it brings
Yesterday is forever gone
Dead, buried never to resurrect
Today is all yours, in your hand for sure
The games of life to choose and play
Your choice to do or not to do
To rise and move and grab in time
Or lie and wait, another to come
The choice you make or do not make
Of today you have that’s all you know
Will tomorrow shape and do assure
Of yesterday gone to lament or not
PROMISE ME FOREVER
By Adejuwon Adegboyega
My love! Ours is paradisiacal
Knotted hearts, as by Eros
Your charm enlivens, as ashes on altars
Too sightly, even for Aphrodite:
For less, Troy for Helen burnt
My love, tender as a roe
Daintier than roses
Dearer than rubies
In your eyes, rainbows seem drab
In your arms, time a halt comes to
What artistry into your sculpture went!
Must have spanned weekends from
dawn to dusk
That a cynosure of all eyes, you always
are
Your form belittles elegance and poise
Your smile outshines stellar constella-
tions at night
Your visage – so masterful and grace-
ful
With a countenance, as our earth’s
physiognomy
Little wonder testosterone wildly
course through me
As though a cross of a he-goat with
a dog
Come nigh and let me, my love
Drown in the ecstasy of your embrace
In passion inflame at your very bosom
In awe dazzled past my wits end
Your love, to stupor has driven me
That so short, lifetimes seem
Too brief to savour your sweetness
As though a twinkle and all’s ended
A flicker and vows suddenly elapse
My love, never just a ‘life’ together
Nor journeying through it as Juliet’s
Romeo
Not flowery beds for reminiscing when
grey
But wishing that death would never
do us part
Rather for ‘ours’ life to outlive, if pos-
sible
And still flame even when cloaked in
earth!
Trust
By Sagay Owumi
You have not learnt to trust
Until you come to a realization
That you have no other option
Total trust hinges on nothing else
Other than the object in which it trusts
I have made my decision, once and
for all
I will trust you, even if it takes away all
Trust, like life dependence, will I have
in you
And beautifully, you will always come
through
Because you know what’s best for me
I trust your judgment more than my
intuition
I trust it more than my desperate
thoughts
It’s not easy, especially on those days
But I’ve made my decision, once and
for all
To trust you all the way!
Market Scene by Nduka Omeife, 2015 (Water Colour on Archies paper)
April - June 2015 •
The Lion King
• 57
Poetry |
Arts
